Sussex County GOP chairman arrested and charged with DWI following Sparta crash
Jerry Scanlan, the chairman of the Sussex County Republican Committee and former vice chair of Sussex County Community College, a role in which he was admonished for sharing offensive posts on social media, was arrested and charged with drunk driving after crashing into a stopped car in Sparta last week, police said.
Scanlan, 55, of Hopatcong, who has served as the county's GOP chair since 2015, was driving a black Nissan XTerra south on Woodport Road at about 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 19 when he rear-ended a Lexus that was stopped at the light at the intersection of Wynona Parkway, Sparta Lt. John Lamon told the New Jersey Herald.
No injuries were reported at the scene, Lamon said.
Scanlan, when contacted by phone on Monday, stated it was not in his best interest to comment on the matter.
Officers stated in their reports that Scanlan appeared to be intoxicated, he smelled of alcohol and admitted he had been drinking alcohol, Lamon said. Scanlan failed field sobriety tests, was placed under arrested and brought into police headquarters, where he submitted to a breathalyzer test, Lamon said.
Lamon declined to state Scanlan's blood alcohol concentration reading, but he told the New Jersey Herald that the legal limit for driving while intoxicated is 0.08% and Scanlan's was "close to being double" that.
Scanlan was charged with driving while intoxicated, careless driving and reckless driving. His SUV was impounded for the required 12 hours.
Scanlan had attended just hours before his arrest the Sussex GOP's annual Lincoln Day Brunch at the Lake Mohawk Golf Club, an $80 per-person fundraiser with sponsorship opportunities of up to $2,600. The event included attendees Sen. Steven Oroho, who announced last month he won't seek reelection for his 24th district seat, and Jack Ciattarelli, a former assemblyman whose strong challenge to Gov. Phil Murphy during the 2021 election may make him a frontrunner for the party in 2025. Immediately after conceding his loss to Murphy, he had already announced he would run again.
Scanlan was appointed by the Sussex County Community College board of trustees by the then-county freeholders in November 2011 before coming under fire in July 2019 amid a litany of offensive posts he shared on the county party's official Twitter account. The page was filled with retweets of memes about Muslims and four congresswomen of color and another included a call to "eradicate Islam from every town, city, county and state in our homeland."
Scanlan later apologized and the trustees approved a resolution to censure him and demote him from his officer position.
Scanlan tentatively has a first appearance to face his charges the first week of March in the joint municipal court of Sparta, Hamburg and Ogdensburg.
Lori Comstock can be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH, on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194.
This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Sussex GOP chairman Jerry Scanlan charged with DWI in Sparta NJ
